


Mizar the Magnificent

by MaryPSue



Series: Reincarnation Blues [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 14:08:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5093579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryPSue/pseuds/MaryPSue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian has an idea. Dipper has a headache.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mizar the Magnificent

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposting older fic from the Transcendence AU blog on tumblr.

Ian looked up almost as soon as Dipper popped into the studio, even before Dipper turned physical. A broad grin split his face, the light winking off of the cybernetics of his right eye as it tracked onto Dipper. “Hey, just the guy I wanted to see! I’ve got something I need to pitch to you.”

With a flicker of effort, Dipper pulled himself onto the physical plane, grimacing at the way Ian’s other eye shifted slightly to focus on him. It had been - holy hell, nearly two years now, and he still wasn’t quite used to the prosthetic or the way its artificial Sight made it move almost independently, following things its twin couldn’t see. Then again, that was pretty low on the list of reasons why Dipper had preferred Ian with two natural eyes. “That is seriously creepy.”

“Right. I’ll just gouge out the other one so I don’t creep you out." 

"That would be so much worse.”

Ian’s smile grew wider as he slipped down from his seat and headed over to the wall of cabinets across the room, pulling down a thick folder from the shelves overhead and pinning pages covered in brightly-coloured drawings to the wall next to him. “You know this gives me serious bragging rights. Not just anyone can make Alcor the Dreambender’s skin crawl just by looking at him.” He paused, throwing a glance over his shoulder. “Do you even actually have skin?”

“Technically, no. Being of pure energy and all that.” Dipper floated a little closer, looking at the sketches Ian was pinning up. “Is that Mira?”

“Close!” Ian grabbed another sheet of thick paper from the stack in the folder, walking over to smile fondly at the drawing of a dark-skinned, smiling girl in square glasses and a ruffled, pale yellow dress with a massive train like a rainbow. “That’s Stella. Or, rather, that’s Stella’s magical girl alter-ego…” He tacked the page he was carrying onto the wall right under the drawing. A pale yellow star, trailing a rainbow train, was the first thing that caught Dipper’s eye, and his mouth went dry before he saw the rest of the rounded purple logo. “Mizar the Magnificent!" 

Ian paused. “Well, actually just Mizar. Alcor gives her the title when he asks for her help. She comes up with the ‘the Magnificent’ part herself, but it never really catches on.”

Dipper tried to think of something to say, but it felt a little like his head was filling up with static. Obviously noticing his silence, Ian started to explain, words falling a little faster from his mouth the longer Dipper stayed silent. “The studio wants to produce a pilot for my own show. I think they were really impressed by the writing I did for Friendship is Prestidigitation. I thought about it, and realised that the only stories I really wanted to tell…weren’t actually mine.” He paused, staring up at one of the character sketches pinned to the board in front of him, a tall, almost abnormally thin man wearing a triangular eyepatch, a yellow tailcoat, and a shit-eating grin. “Or, at least, not mine alone.”

"You have a self-insert,” Dipper managed, with a little difficulty, taking in the brickwork patterning along the drawing’s cummerbund and the tails of his coat with a kind of horrified fascination. 

Ian glanced away from the sketch and snorted.

“What, this guy? Hah, no way. He’s everything I thought was cool when I was like fourteen or fifteen - confident, sadistic, Machiavellian puppet master.” He turned back to the sketch, giving it a quizzical look. “Man, I was kind of a sociopath when I was fifteen. Thank goodness for therapy. No, I do have a self-insert, but not Bael, it’s…this guy!”

The sketch Ian pointed to looked a lot more like him, only perhaps about ten years younger - his face equally young-looking, but without the short beard Ian usually wore, a little shorter than average and noodly-limbed under a black T-shirt and jeans and red plaid flannel. “Sam Cyrus! Stella’s on-again-off-again boyfriend. And, uh, his alter-ego, Cipher, who we think is the main villain throughout season one, and season two until Bael shows up.” He tapped a knuckle against another drawing of a similar-looking boy in a dress shirt, bow tie, and suspenders, eyes yellow and slit-pupiled, a blue—flame aura surrounding him. “I don’t want him to show his hand too early. I’m thinking first season finale, we find out Cipher was actually Sam all along but Sam doesn’t actually know, and second season is about finding out who’s pulling Sam’s strings and causing all the weird stuff that’s happening. Honestly, Bael’s probably only going to have, like, twenty minutes of screentime total?” 

Ian paused, turning to look over at Dipper, both eyes widening. “Oh, shit, sorry, I’m getting way ahead of myself. Um.” He scuffed one foot along the concrete floor. “I want to do a show based on you and Mizar, and your adventures in Gravity Falls.”

Dipper didn’t answer. Almost automatically, his eyes roved across the wall of drawings, character model sheets for Stella and Alcor (who did, indeed, look like him, although…was his head really that big?), rough sketches of Stella’s attacks, paintings of breathtakingly familiar landscapes in rich twilight colours, tall pines and crystal streams and a tiny town that was more home than home had been, sketches upon sketches of familiar faces he hadn’t seen in - so long, too long…

“I wanted to put together some material so you knew what direction I wanted to take it,” Ian said, snapping Dipper out of his reverie. “But none of this is set in stone. If there’s anything you don’t like, or if the whole thing’s too personal, then I can do something else, no problem.”

The disappointment in his voice finally helped Dipper find his. “This is…have you talked to Mira about this?” he asked, not looking away from the pencil drawing of Main Street and the crowd of backgrounders that Ian had carelessly sketched in, clearly to fill space. That girl looked almost exactly like Wendy Corduroy, right down to the freckles, and - was that Preston Northwest? 

“Huh? No, not yet. I wanted it to be a surprise.” Ian smiled, and it was very different from his grin at the thought of creeping Dipper out, softer somehow. “She’d love it, a whole series about someone who’s basically her kicking butt and looking cute doing it. I didn’t want to get her hopes up in case they don’t order the series, though.”

Dipper nodded to himself, finally tearing his eyes away from the sketches pinned to the wall. “If you want to do this, then go ahead. I don’t know anybody else who could do it justice. Besides, it can’t be any worse than Twin Souls.” He shuddered.

Ian gave him a disbelieving look for a moment, before his face split into a broad, excited grin. “Seriously?” Dipper nodded, and he gave a little fist-pump. “Yes! I’ll credit you as a creative consultant if you want -“

“Really? Cool!” A thought struck Dipper, and he quickly added, “But, uh, list me as ‘Tyrone Pines’, please." 

Ian looked blank for a second, before nodding in understanding. “Gotcha. Don’t really want everybody calling you up about stuff that happens in the show, asking you to make me put their ideas into an episode…“

Dipper thought about the things that Twin Souls fans had asked him to do over the years, and decided that he could leave Ian innocent of the true depths of fan depravity for a little while longer. “Sure. But if you put my name on it, it looks like you didn’t do the work to get there.” He settled back in midair, tucking both hands behind his head. “And seriously, you deserve all the credit you’re gonna get for this. So…tell me about your plot?”

The look Ian gave him almost made Dipper forget completely whose soul was hiding behind the baby face and scruffy reddish curls. He turned away, gesturing to a sketch of Stella in an oversized sweater with a shooting star on the front and a painting of a building that looked remarkably like the old Mystery Shack before it had been renovated to make room for the Library, but a small, proud smile still played across his lips.

“Well, it all starts when Stella Conifer gets sent to spend a summer with her great-aunt Carla in Gravity Falls. On her first day there, she gets kidnapped by gnomes, only to be saved by Alcor, who makes her a deal: he’ll give her the powers to save herself from any tight spots she might get into in the future, if she’ll help him get to the bottom of something strange that’s going on in town…”


End file.
